Ice ruins most cold drinks. Take something built hot, pour it over cubes, and the flavour thins out before you reach the bottom of the glass. Every chocolate, coffee, chai and tea latte we make has an iced version built cold from the start. Behind the bar sits a fridge of bottles and cans for anyone who does not want a barista drink at all. Bring three people into central Christchurch on a warm afternoon and nobody has to settle for whatever everyone else is having.
The iced side of the bar
Iced chocolate starts at $5, built on dark Belgian chocolate, with the same two finishes as the hot version. New York style puts a toasted marshmallow rim on the glass, so every mouthful drags past something soft and slightly burnt. Paris style keeps the whipped cream on the side. You add the richness at your own pace, or you leave it alone.
Iced coffee is pulled on the C4 Coffee Co Terra Nova Fair Trade Organic blend. Same beans as the hot cups. It still tastes of coffee once the ice has done its work.
Iced chai is made from real tea leaves and organic spices, no artificial syrups and no premixed powders, with a touch of natural citric acid for balance. The iced Zealong tea latte comes in three. Jade is green and grassy. Velvet is roasted and rounder. Noir is black tea and the driest of the three, drying the back of the tongue the way strong tea does. Zealong is the only tea plantation in New Zealand, and the powder is certified organic with no sweeteners, additives or preservatives.
Most of these can be made with a dairy-free milk, a standing everyday option and nothing to arrange in advance. Our kitchen is small and without exclusive production areas for all of our different recipes, so traces may occur, and nothing we make is guaranteed safe for severe coeliac disease.
The affogato barely counts as a drink
The affogato is espresso poured over vanilla bean ice cream. Stir it twice and the ice cream goes slack, the coffee goes pale, and you are eating instead of drinking. Shortest thing on the list. More of an ending than a beginning.
From the fridge
The chilled cabinet by the counter, listed as From the Fridge, covers everyone the bar does not. Coca-Cola Classic and Coke Zero Sugar both sit in it.
The sodas come from Sidekick Soda in Wanaka, in four flavours: cherry, mango, strawberry and pear. The cherry one shows how they are put together. Central Otago cherries for sweetness, a splash of organic Nelson apple cider vinegar for a clean tang that catches at the back of the throat, Southland honey to finish, and under four grams of sugar per hundred millilitres. Sharp, never syrupy.
The juices come from Benjer. The apple juice is pressed from Cox's Orange apples and never made from concentrate, so it reads crisp instead of floury. Apricot and nectarine come on their own. Apple gets blended with mango, raspberry, boysenberry or feijoa. No added sugar and no preservatives in any of them.
Order across the list, not down it
One cold drink each is fine. Two people ordering from opposite ends of the list and swapping glasses halfway is better, and it costs exactly the same. Put an iced chocolate beside an iced Zealong Noir. One coats the mouth, the other strips it clean. Two sips in and you leave with an opinion instead of a guess. With four of you, take a soda, a juice, an iced coffee and an affogato, and the whole cold range is on the table. Somebody always claims the affogato first, then passes the glass along with the spoon still standing in it.
For something thicker and closer to a dessert in a glass, the four thickshakes are covered properly in our piece on the chocolate milkshakes and thickshakes.
To share one thing instead of comparing four, the signature chocolate fondue comes out warm: Belgian chocolate to dip into, house-toasted marshmallow, a mini croissant, cookies, brownie bites and fresh fruit. Built for more than one person from the start.
Nothing here needs booking
Every drink is a walk-in: no notice, nothing to arrange. Made-to-order desserts take about ten minutes on the day. Anything ordered online for collection needs two days, and the checkout date picker shows only the dates the kitchen can meet. Everything is collected in person from our patisserie inside The Welder on Welles Street, since we do not deliver.
Tables move to seat four to eight. The kitchen is open, so you can watch the work while you talk. The room is dog friendly, with a water bowl and metal table legs to clip a lead to. Doors open 10am to 9pm Tuesday to Saturday. More on the beans in our piece on coffee and cake in central Christchurch, and more on the leaves in our piece on Zealong tea.
